Volume 99, Number 4, August 2012
|Number of page(s)||6|
|Published online||24 August 2012|
Dynamical crossover between the infinite-volume and empty-lattice limits of ultra-cold fermions in 1D optical lattices
1 Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory - MS B213, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA
2 Department of Physics, University of California - San Diego, CA 92093, USA
Received: 20 April 2012
Accepted: 23 July 2012
Unlike typical condensed-matter systems, ultra-cold atoms loaded into optical lattices allow separate control of both the particle number and system size. As a consequence, there are two distinct “thermodynamic” limits that can be defined for these systems: i) “infinite-volume limit” at constant finite density, and ii) “empty-lattice limit” at constant particle number. To probe the difference between these two limits and their crossover, we consider a partially occupied lattice and study the transport of non-interacting fermions and fermions interacting at the mean-field level into the unoccupied region. In the infinite-volume limit, a finite steady-state current emerges. On the other hand, in the empty-lattice limit there is no finite steady-state current. By changing the initial filling, we find a smooth crossover between the two limits. Our predictions may be verified using available experimental tools and demonstrate a fundamental difference between isolated small systems such as ultra-cold atoms and conventional condensed-matter systems.
PACS: 05.60.Gg – Quantum transport / 67.10.Jn – Transport properties and hydrodynamics / 72.10.-d – Theory of electronic transport; scattering mechanisms
© EPLA, 2012
Current usage metrics show cumulative count of Article Views (full-text article views including HTML views, PDF and ePub downloads, according to the available data) and Abstracts Views on Vision4Press platform.
Data correspond to usage on the plateform after 2015. The current usage metrics is available 48-96 hours after online publication and is updated daily on week days.
Initial download of the metrics may take a while.